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Orhan Pamuk Goes On Trial

Given the international attention that Orhan Pamuk’s case had drawn, both in and out of Turkey, I had hoped that the suit would be dismissed before it went to trial. This has not been the case, unfortunately for him (and for freedom of speech in Turkey.) Pamuk, you’ll recall, stands accused of “denigrating Turkish identity” because he dared to speak of the genocide of Armenians by the Turks, in an interview he gave to a Swiss magazine. If found guilty, Pamuk faces up to three years’ imprisonment.

No word yet on the outcome of today’s hearing, but, according to this article, it could still be postponed.

(Update: The BBC reports that the trial has indeed been postponed, due to a legal technicality. The prosecutor sent the case back to the Justice Ministry to decide whether Pamuk should be tried under the old penal code or the new. The next hearing is set for February 7, 2006.)

(Another update: The BBC article states that 60 other writers have been accused under the same law that Pamuk is being tried under. So perhaps a high-profile case like this will actually help get the law repealed.)

Pamuk has received wide support, from individual writers like Jose Saramago and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, from writers’ organizations like PEN, and from government bodies as well (the EU has been pretty vocal). But that has not stopped the Turkish prosecutor from moving forward with the case.

Moorishgirl’s stats file indicates that it has readers in Turkey. If you are one, I’d love to hear from you. What is the local press saying? What are the reactions among your friends?



Imagining Characters

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times (reprinted in the Star Tribune), E. Annie Proulx describes the kind of imaginative work she had to do to create the characters in “Brokeback Mountain.”

“Put yourself in my place,” the author says. “An elderly, white, straight female, trying to write about two 19-year-old gay kids in 1963. What kind of imaginative leap do you think was necessary? Profound, extreme, large. To get into those guys’ heads and actions took a lot of 16-hour days, and never thinking about anything else and living a zombie life. That’s what I had to do. I really needed an exorcist to get rid of those characters. And they roared back when I saw the film.”(…)

It was 1995 and Proulx, who lives in Wyoming, visited a crowded bar near the Montana border. The place was rowdy and packed with attractive women, everyone was drinking, and the energy was high.

“There was the smell of sex in the air,” remembers Proulx. “[B]ut here was this old shabby-looking guy. … watching the guys playing pool. He had a raw hunger in his eyes that made me wonder if he were country gay. I wondered, ‘What would’ve he been like when he was younger?’ Then he disappeared, and in his place appeared Ennis. And then Jack. You can’t have Ennis without Jack.”

A year after the story was published, Proulx says, Matthew Shepard was killed in Wyoming and she was called to be on the jury.

Shepard’s murder partly inspired Percival Everett for his new novel, Wounded. In it, a horse rancher hires a laborer who eventually becomes accused of a hate crime against a gay man. The book was released to generally positive reviews earlier this fall.




Giveaway: The Every Boy

This week, I’d like to give away a copy of Dana Adam Shapiro’s debut novel, The Every Boy, which is about the sudden death of a troubled teenager, and the father’s attempt to discover what happened by poring over his son’s diary. The Every Boy, which was released last summer, has been praised by Amy Sedaris, Tom Perrotta, and Matthew Sharpe.

The first person to correctly answer this question wins the book: Which movie did Dana Adam Shapiro direct? Please use the subject line “Every Boy” in your email, and please also include your mailing address. Previous winners excluded.

Update: The winner is Ilham E. from Decatur, Georgia.



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